gordianplotfandomcom-20200214-history
ARTICULATION AND PRONUNCIATION in oratory
On whatever subject and for whatever purpose a man speaks to his fellow-men, they will never listen to him with interest uniers they can hear what he says; and that without effort. If his utterance is rapid and indistinct, no weight of his sentiments, no strength or smoothness of voice, no excellence of modulation, emphasis, or cadence, will enable him to speak SO as to be heard with pleasure. —Powrsit. A renrdble man has one mode of articulation, and one only, namely : always to pro. nounce his words in such a manner as to be readily understood, but never in such a man ner as to excite remark. —Lacionvis. Defl nitions. —Articulation is proper utterance of vocal elements. Pronunciation. signifies utterance of words, that is, of combinations of vocal elements. Distinctness is a general habit of the voice, belonging to all its sounds, articulate or inarticulate, being not mere correctness, buta sort of compactness of utterance. A good articulation consists in giving every letter in a syllable its due proportion of sound, according to the most approved custom of pronouncing it ; and in making such a distinction between the syllables of which words are composed, that the ear shall, without difficulty, acknowledge their number, and perceive at once to which syllable each letter belongs. —SHERMAN. In just articulation, the words are not to be hurried over ; nor precipitated syllable over syllable ; nor, as it were, melted together into a mass of confusion. They should be neither abridged nor prolonged nor swallowed nor forced ; they should not be trailed nor drawled nor let slip out carelessly, so as to drop unfinished. They are to be delivered out from the lips as beautiful coins, newly issued from the mint, deeply and accurately impressed, perfectly finished, neatly struck out by the proper organs, distinct, in due succession, and of due weight. —Ausrues Chirononsice, It had an odd, promiscuous tons, As if he had talked three parts in one; Which made some think, when he did gabble, They heard three laborers of Babel, Or Carberns hhnesif pronounce A leash of languages at once. —Bowixs. Conversational speech is in general, very slovenly. Could it IA written down exactly as we hear it, the speaker would not recognize the unintelligible jargon. Thus : Convsaahnlspeech zngenlveslovnly. This is not an exaggeration of the kind of utterance that passes current in social life. The chief element of distant audibilitythroat-sound, or voice—is so curtailed and slurred out, that little more than mouth-actions remain. The very reverse must be the relation of throat to mouth in oratorical speech. Consonants may be softened to any degree, but vowels must be given fully and with swelling clearness. Thus : cOmvEnsAsalJNAL SPEECH Is IN GENERAL vEBY sLOvENLY. —BELL. A speaker may possess a very intelligent apprehension of the pronunciation of words, and he may very perspicuously show this to his hearers by marking in some degree the proper points for accentuation which occur in the words which he utters. But if there be any natural or acquired defect in the organs of speech ; for instance, if the voice be exceedingly unmanageable, or if the palate should be gone, a person in this condition, although he may indicate by a very feeble and imperfect accentuation of words that he possesses a clue apprehension of the necessity of that quality in speaking, yet he cannot, owing to his poverty in the blessing of sound, give out the different syllables in the words which he utters with a distinct intonation ; he cannot yield to each syllable and letter in the composition of a word that due degree of weight which will mark with distinctness and precision the divisions which exist in them, just as the transient pauses which occur between the notes delivered from a bell of a glassy intonation repeat the distincter existence of each sound which falls from it upon the ear. It may be said of a person whose voice does not come to the aid of his understanding in the pronunciation of words, that he is a correct pronouncer, but not a perfect or just articulator, just as it may be said of a performer on the violin, who is a perfect master of the science but not of the sounds of music, that he is a correct but not a distinct musician. —McQumm. Importance of Articulation. —A good articulation is to the ear what a fair hand-writing or a fair type is to the eye. Who has not felt the perplexity of supplying a word torn away by the seal of a letter ; or a dozen syllables of a book in as many lines, cut off by the carelessness of a binder? The same inconvenience is felt from a similar omission in spoken language ; with this additional disadvantage, that we are not at liberty to stop and spell out the meaning by construction. . . . A man of indistinct utterance reads this sentence : "The magistrates ought to prove a declaration so publicly made. " When I perceive that his habit is to strike only the accented syllable clearly, sliding over others, I do not know whether it is meant that they ought to prove the declaration, or to approve it, or reprove it, —for in either case he would speak only the syllable prove. Nor do I know whether the magistrates ought to do it, or the magistrate sought to do it. —PosTER. Difficulties of Articulation. —I. The first and chief difficulty lies in the fact that articulation consists essentially in the consonant sounds, and that many of these are difficult of utterance. . . . It is evident to the slightest observation that the open vowels are uttered with ease and strength. On these public criers swell their notes to so great a compass. II. A second difficulty arises from the immediate succession of the same or similar sounds. Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone. Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire. The hosts still stood. The battle lasts still. Wastes and deserts—Waste sand deserts. To obtain either—To obtain neither. His cry moved me—His crime moved me. He could pay nobody—He could pain nobody. In the last example, grammar forbids a pause between pain and nobody, while orthoepy demands one. But change the structure so as to render a pause proper after pain, and the difficulty vanishes :—thus, Though he endured great pain, nobody pitied him. A serious man was never before guilty of such a series of follies; in which every species of absurdity was accompanied by a specious gravity. The duke paid the money due to the jew before the dew was off the ground ; and the Jew, having duly acknowledged it, said adieu to the duke forever. A third difficulty arises from the influence of accent. The importance which this stress attaches to syllables on which it falls compels them to be spoken in a more full and deliberate manner than others. Hence if the recurrence of this stress is too close, it occasions heaviness in utterance ; if too remote, indistinctness. • And ten low words oft creep in one dull line. • • Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone. • Communicatively, authoritatively, terrestrial, reasonableness, disinterestedness. A fourth difficulty arises from a tendency of the organs to slide over unaccented vowels. —PORTER. Cautions In Articulation. -1:In aiming to form a distinct articulation, take care not to form one that is measured and mechanical. Something of preciseness is very apt to appear at first, . . . but practice and perseverance will enable us to combine ease and fluency with clearness of utterance. The child, in passing from his spelling manner is ambitious to become a swift reader, and thus falls into a confusion of organs that is to be cured only by retracing the steps which produced it. The remedy, however, is no better than the fault, if it runs into a scan-fling, pe-dan-tic for-mal-i-ty, giving undue stress to particles and unaccented syllables ; thus, "He is the man of all the world whom I rejoicetomeet. " Let the close of sentences be spoken clearly, with sufficient strength and on the proper pitch to bring out the meaning completely. No part of a sentence is so important as the close, both in respect to sense and harmony. Ascertain your own defects of articulation by the aid of some friend, and then devote a short time, statedly and daily, to correct them. —PORTER. Special Difficulties. —I. Consonant8. When a child says "turn" for "come, " and "tin" for "king, " the correct articulation will be induced almost at the first trial by the simple expedient of holding down the forepart of the tongue with the finger. The effort to imitate the general effect will then force the back part of the tongue into action ; and in a few clays at most, the child will, without any assistance, form k, g, and ng, where before it could only utter 1, d, and n. The "shut" consonants (p, t, k, b, d, g, ) are the most easily acquired, and children consequently pronounce p instead of the more difficultf, and t instead of 1k. A few moments devoted to amusing exercise will conquer this difficulty. Thus, tell the child to bite his lower lip, and blow, and he will form a tolerable f at once; or to bite his tongue and blow, and a passable thwill be the result. The sounds of sand sh are often for a long time confounded; also those of sand lh. The sound of s will be obtained fromth by drawing back—or, if assistance is needed, by pushing back—the tip of the tongue till it is free from the teeth. The teeth require to be very close for s, but there will be room to insert the edge of a paper-cutter to play the tongue into position. The lower dames of the French Canadians habitually confound the mutes kand in certain combinations, and y "milder, " " molkid, " for ' metier, " " moitie. ” The double forms numles and nuntlus and the like show that the Romans did the same thing, if, as has been supposed, theirc bad always the force of k. An extraordinary instance of this particular confusion occurs in the remarks on pronunciation prefixed to Webster's large Dictionary, printed in 1828. In that esasy the lexicographer, whose most conspicuous defects were certainly not those of the ear, after having devoted a lifetime to the study of English orthoilpy and etymology, informs the student that "the letters Cl, answering tokl, are pronounced as if writtenU; clear, clean, are pronounced Uear, tlean. 01 Is pronounced dl ; glory is pronounced dlory. "—Miusw. II. How to roll one's Ps. The two letters d and t, formed at the end of the tongue, are easily and naturally pronounced by everybody. Talma's idea was to pronounce these two letters rapidly and alternately ; as, du tn du tu, etc. Then by degrees joining r to them, he pronounced the new combination also rapidly and alternately, dru tru dru tru, etc. By this contrivance it struck him that he could fish up the letter r from the depths of the throat, where it seemed to prefer keeping itself ; that he could compel it, as it were, to answer the call of its companions inviting it out to the dance. Imagine a young girl—excuse the oddness of the comparison—a timid, shrinking young girl, hiding herself in a corner of the ball-room, but called out by her companions, who drag her forcibly and merrily into the middle of the circling throng. Soon, however, one friend slips away, then another, and another, so that at last our modest, timid, shy last-comer finds herself unconsciously dancing, and dancing well, without the protection of any participating companions. That is exactly what Telma did. He first dropped the d and then the t; instead of saying dru tru dru tru, he said mu ru fu mu, and kept on doing this so persistently that at last the r, having been well-accustomed to vibrate with the others, had no difficulty in vibrating all alone. —Lzootryk. IIL The Italian A. It may here be pertinently remarked that the pronunciation of a in such words as glass, last, father, and pastor, is a test of high culture. The tendency among uncultivated persons is to give a either the thick, throaty sound of au which I have endeavored to describe, or, oftenest, to give it the thin, fiat sound which it has in an, at, and anatomy. Next to that tone of voice which, it would seem, is not to be acquired by any striving in adult years, and which indicates breeding rather than education, the full, free, unconscious utterance of the broad oh sound of a is the surest indication in speech of social culture which began at the cradle. — RICHARD GRANT WHITE. IV. The Letter H 'Twos whispered in heaven, 'twee muttered in hall, And echo (ought faintly the sound SPit fell ; On the confines of earth 'twas permitted to rest, And the depths of the ocean its presence contest ; 'Twill be found in the sphere when 'tie riven asunder, Be seen in the lightning and heard in the thunder ; 'Twee allotted to man with his earliest breath, Attends at his birth, and awaits him at death ; Presides o'er his happiness, honors, and health ; Is the prop of his house and the end of his wealth. In the heaps of the miser 'tis hoarded with care, But is sore to be lost with his prodigal heir ; It begins every hope, every wish it must bound ; With the husbandman toils; with the monarch is crowned. Without It the soldier, the sailor may roam, But woe to the wretch who expels it from home In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found, Nor e'en in the whirlwind of passion be drowned. 'Twill soften the heart ; though deaf be the ear, 'Twill make it acutely and instantly hear ; But in shade let it rest like a delicste flower ; Oh I breathe on it softly—it dies in an hour. —Csrnanrint FANSHAIME. The only four words in the English language beginning with h and not aspirated Ire, hour, heir, honestand honor, with their derivations. Hostler is often written ostler, but when it begins with h, it should be aspirated, as are "host, " "hostelry, " and "hotel. " Sometimes " herb " and "humble" are not aspirated. We do as. pirate "herbal, " "herbarium, " and "herbivorous. " Humble should be aspirated. Moore wrote his line : "A heart that is humble might hope for it here, " in order to confound the cockneys, and so did Mrs. Crawford her line : "The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill. " In Punch, the cockney says : "The best cure for tho cholera is the open hair ; I do not mean the air of the ead, but the hair of the hatmosphere. " A bit of LondonPun "Have you any fresheggs?" "Yes, mum, plenty ; them with the hen on 'em I " "With tho hen on them ?" "Yes, mum, we always puts a hen on our fresh eggs, to distinguish of 'em. Beg pardon, mum, don't think you understand. Hen, the letter, not 'en, the bird. Hen, for noo-laid, mum. Take a dozen, mum ? Thank you I" V. Nasal Tones. The soft palate which hangs at the back of the mouth acts as a valve on the passage to the nose. When the top of the soft palate is arched backward from its point of junction with the hard palate, it covers the internal nasal aperture, and the breath passes altogether through the mouth. When the soft palate is relaxed and pendent from the edge of the hard palate, the breath passes partly through the nose and partly through the mouth ; and when the mouth-passage is closed (by means of the back of the tongue, as in ng, the forepart of the tongue, as in n, or the lips, as in ts, ) the breath passes altogether by the nose. A knowledge Of these facts will enable any person to correct the habit of nasalizing vowels. The chief difficulty lies in the recognition by the ear of pure oral and mixed nasal quality. The action of the soft palate may, however, beseen, by opening the mouth very wide in pronouncing the vowels ahand air. Then, by pressing on the top of the soft palate with the thumb, or with the indis-rubber end of a pencil, the internal nasal aperture will be covered, and the utterance of ahand ato will be purely oral. Repeat these vowels with and without the mechanical pressure, and after a few experiments the ear will distinguish the difference between oral and nasaL Practice on other vowels, in forming which the soft palate cannot be seen, will soon develop a feeling of the difference. But the readiest way to gain a perception of the denasalizing action of the soft palate will be by the following exercise : Bound the consonants in b without separating the lips, as in pronouncing the word ember. The change from m tob is nothing more than the covering of the nasal aperture by the soft palate ; and the change fromb to in without separating the lips, as in the word submit, is merely the uncovering of the nasal aperture. — LegouvErs Infallible Rule. — On the clearness of our pronunciation depends the clearness of our discourse. In fact too much cannot be said of good pronunciation. It is the main point in our delivery ; on it depends the very life of our words. The consonants are the solid framework of the word ; they are its bones. From the consonants we can reconstruct the word itself, just as envier used to reconstruct the animals. It is the intimate union between the vowels and the consonants that constitutes pronunciation. There is no such thing as pronouncing a consonant by itself, andeven the vowel, though it forms the sound that we emit, does not form the word that we pronounce. As to the consonants, the art of pronouncing them perfectly is the art of articulating them perfectly. There is no art more useful, but it is one that is by no means easy of acquirement. Few people possess from nature perfect powers of articulation. With some it is too strong, with others too weak, with many indistinct. These defects can be remedied by systematic labor, and by that alone. How ? you naturally ask. Well, here is one way, very ingenious and effective, and yet extremely simple and eminently practicable. You wish, let us suppose, to confide a secret to a friend ; but you are afraid of being overheard, the door being open, and somebody listening in the next room. What would you do ? Walk up to your friend and whisper the secret into his ear ? Not at all. You might be caught in the act, and so excite suspicion. What should you do ? I will tell you, and in doing so I will quote the exact words of that master of masters, Regnier "You face your friend exactly, and pronouncing your words distinctly, but in an underbreath, you commission your articulations to convey them to your friend's eyes rather than his ears, . for he is as carefully watching how you speak as he is intently listening to what you say. Articulation here, having a double duty to perform, that of sound as well as its own peculiar function, is compelled as it were to dwell strongly on each syllable so as to land it safely within the intelligence of your hearer. " This is an infallible means of correcting all the defects and faults of your articulation. It is at once an exercise and a test ; if you do not articulate well, your friend will not understand you. After a very few months' steady practice at this exercise for a few hours a day, you will find that your most obdurate articulatory muscles become flexible as well as strong, that they rise elastically and respond harmoniously to every movement of the thought and to every difficulty of the pronunciation. —LEaouvA. Practice in Articulation. —Begin at the end of a line, sentence, or paragraph, so as to prevent the possibility of reading negligently ; then (1) articulate every ele ment in every word, separately and very distinctly, throughout the line or sentence ; (2) enunciate every syllable of every word throughout the line or sentence clearly and exactly ; (3) pronounce every word in the same style ; (4) read the line or sentence from the beginning forward, with strict attention to the manner of pronouncing every word ; (5) read the whole line or sentence with an easy, fluent enunciation, paying strict attention to the expression of the meaning, but without losing correctness in the style of pronunciation. —Muanoca. Exercises. — Beef-broth, three. sixths, literally literary, knitting-needle, quit quickly, such a sash, puff up the fop, a velvet weaver, a out ofCHAP. IX. I EXERCISES. 161 pumpkin, a knapsack strap, coop up the cook, a school coal-scuttle, veal and white wine vinegar, geese cackle and cattle low, cocks crow and crows caw, a shocking sottish set, she sells seashells, cloudcapped, laurel-wreath, linen lining, a comic mimic, rural railroad, Scotch thatch, statistics of sects, portly poultry, a wet white wafer, pick pepper peacock, I snuff shop snuff. —BxLi. Amidst the mists and coldest frosts, With barest wrists and stoutest boasts, lie thrusts his lists against the posts, And still insists he sees the ghosts. Crazy Craycroft caught a crate of crickled crabs ; A crate of crickled crabs Crazy Craycroft caught. If Crazy Craycroft caught a crate of crickled crabs, Where's the crate of criokied crabs Crazy Crayoroft caught/ Thou wreathed'st and muzzled'st the far-fetched ox, and imprisoned'st him in the volcanic Mexican mountain of Pop-o-cat-epet1, in Co-to-pax-i. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers ; a peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked ? Thou waft'd'at the rickety staff over the mountain-height cliffs, and clearly saw'st the full-orb'd moon. When a twitter twisting, would twist him a twist, For twisting a twist three twists be will twist, But if one of the twists untwists from the twist, The twist untwisting untwists the twist. Robert Rowley rolled a round roll round ; a round roll Robert Rowley rolled round. Where rolled the round roll Robert Rowley rolled round ? Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle-sifter, in sifting a sieveful of thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb. Peter Prangle, the prickly-pear picker, picked three pecks of prickly prangly pears from the prangly pear-trees on the pleasant prairies. Shoes and socks shock Susan. PRONUNCIATION. Pronunciation is made up of articulation and accentuation; when both are perfect, the individual has a correct and elegant pronunciation. —VANDENHOFF. Lord Chatham kept a dictionary constantly within his reach (1) to insure to every word he uttered in debate a pronunciation of incontestable accuracy, and (2) to enable him to select those words which would best express the idea he wished to convey. Standards of Pronunciation. —Walker recommends that the analogies and tendencies of the language should be studied, as the best guides in orthoiipy. He has justly censured Dr. Johnson's general rule, that "those are to be considered as the most elegant speakers who, deviate least from the written words. " If the learned lexicographer's principle were adopted, what strange changes in pronunciation would be required in reading the following sentences, in which none of the words printed in italics are sounded according to the spelling : The common usage of English people intalking their native tongue proves that they do nottrouble themselves as to the spelling of the words. It surely is an evil custom, andsavors of affectation to talk otherwise thantheir fathers, mothers, brothers, andrelations have talkedIf the professors of colleges andother places of education would give their attention to the principles of English pronunciation, they would see reason notto sanction the fashion of pronouncing many common words in unusual ways—sounding the final syllables exactly as they are spelled in evil, devil, heaven, leaven, heathen, even, reason, season, beacon, deacon, often, softly, etc. , etc. —PLumenus. Dictionary authority. —When two or more pronunciations of a given word have equal authority, choice may be made between them on the grounds of analogy, derivation, perspicuity, and euphony ; but as a general rule the pronunciation of words should be determined by the dictionaries in commonest use, the compilers of which are quite as capable as the young student of weighing the various considerations which should lead to the preference of one pronunciation over another. How impossible it is to adopt any other standard than recognized authority is shown by the following instances of the changes in the pronunciation of words produced by adding a single letter. B makes a road broad, turns the ear into a bear, and Tom into a tomb. C makes limb climb, hanged changed, a lever clever, and transports a lover to clover. turns a bear to beard, a crow to a crowd, and makes anger danger. F turns lower regions to flower regions. G changes a son to song, and makes one gone. H changes eight into height. IC makes now know, and eyed keyed. L transforms a pear into a pearl. turns a line into linen, a crow to a crown, and makes one none. P metamorphoses lumber into plumber. Et turns even into seven, makes have shave, and word a sword, a pear a spear, makes slaughter of laughter, and curiously changes having a hoe into shaving a shoe. T makes a bough bought, turns here into there, alters one to tone, changes ether to tether, and transforms the phrase "allow his own" into "tallow this town. " W does well :e. g. , hose are whose ? are becomes ware, on won, omen women, so sow, vieview, an arm becomes warm, and a hat is turned into—what ? Y turns fur to fury, a man to many, to to toy, a nib to a ruby, ours to yours, and a lad to a lady. -PATTERSON. The Unpardonable Error in pronunciation is obtrusively to pronounce differently a word which has just been uttered. Among intimate friendsdiscussion of each other's verbal errors may by agreement become pleasant and profitable. But one should not venture to take this liberty with a stranger or with older people ; for, L There is no subject upon which persons are generally more sensitive than upon their use of language. Even scholars become acrimonious when their opinions on this subject are disputed, as witness the books of Richard Grant White, Fitzedward Hall, Dean Alford, G. Washington Moon, and others. The explanation of this peculiar bitterness seems to be that one's use of language depends upon his early associations, his "bringing up, " so to speak ; and hence to insinuate that one is unacquainted with prevailing usage in speech, is to imply that one is also unacquainted with prevailing usage in manners—in other words, that he is no gentleman. U. So widely do authorities differ, that one must be a profound student of orthoepy to feel secure in asserting that the pronunciation he hears is wrong. Take the word pronunciation itself. Webster gives " pronunshiashun, " without hint of other usage, and one who had consulted only this dictionary might feel that any other pronunciation was erroneous. But Perry, Knowles, Smart, Craig, Cooley, Cull, and Wright all prefer " pronunseashun, " while Sheridan makes it " pronunshashun. " Plumptre, in his King's College Lectures on Elocution, says : "The wordpronunciationis smoother when the cis pronounced ass, not as sh, and the word pronounced as if written pronumeashon, not pronunsheashon. The repetition of the hissing sound of the shis unpleasant. " In face of this authority, while one has the right to prefer the sh sound, he would simply obtrude his ignorance if he called the spronunciation wrong. The general rule should be, whenever one hears a word pronounced in an unaccustomed way, by a person likely to know about it, immediately to look it up in the best authorities at hand, so as to assure one's self about it. But if, as often happens, the person seems to be wrong, one need not correct him. The object of observing the pronunciation of others is to correct, not theirusage but our own. That labor is well bestowed which makes us sure that we can pronounce correctly the words we use. But correct pronunciation is a means, not an end. To be able to report of an eloquent sermon only that the preacher said na-tional instead of nash-onal, betrays the most insufferable pedantry. Aman asked whether he would have his fish &riled, replied that he didn't care whether it was briledor biled, providing it was notspiled. "Mr. Kemble, " said George III. , "will you obleege me with a pinch of your snuff?" "With pleasure, your Majesty ; but it would become your royal lips better to say oblige. "—Gneseia. Here it may be doubted whether the actor was following the usage of the day more accurately than the king. Marsh says ; "Oblige, for instance, in its complimentary sense, is a word recently introduced from France ; for this is a meaning unknown to Shakspere, and as a word of ceremonial phraseology it was first pronounced obleege, but it is now almost uniformly articulated with the English sound of i long. " ProperNames. —Namesof persons and places depend for their pronunciation wholly upon local usage. The only caution to be observed is that where well-known geographical names have a recognized English as well as a local pronunciation, the former should be employed. One would make himself ridiculous by talking of Paree and Baerleen. Indeed, a strict conformity to the native pronunciation of names belonging to languages whose orthographical system differs much from our own, is considered an offensive affectation, and a great British orator, who was as familiar with French as with English, is said to have been so scrupulous on this point that in his parliamentary speeches he habitually spoke of an important French port as Bordeaux. —MAnsa Exercises. —Of late years unusual attention has been given to words usually mispronounced. Among the collocations of such words strung together into a sort of con nection, the following will be found useful, few persons being able to read them through without a blunder. A sacrilegious son of Bella, who suffered from bronchitis, having exhausted his finances, in order to make good the deficit resolved to ally himself to a comely, lenient, and docile young lady of the Malay or Caucasian race. He accordingly Purchased a calliope and coral necklace of a chameleon hue, and, securing a suite of rooms at a principal hotel, he engaged the head waiter as his coadjutor. He then dispatched a letter of the most unexceptionable calligraphy extant, inviting the young lady to a matinde. She revolted at the idea, refused to consider herself sacrificeable to his desires, and sent a polite note of refusal, on receiving which he procured a carbine and a bowie-knife, said that he would not now forge fetters hymeneal with the queen, went to an isolated spot, severed his jugular vein, and discharged the contents of his carbine into his abdomen. The d6bris was removed by the coroner. An Indian, attracted by the aroma of the coffee and the broth arising from the bivouac, moving down the path met a bombastic bravo who was troubled with the bronchitis. The Indian being in deshabille, was treated with disdain by this blackguard, who called him a dog, and bade him with much vehemence and contumely to leave his domain, or he would demonstrate by his carbine the use of a coffin and cemetery. The Indian calmly surveyed the dimensions of his European opponent, and being sagacious and robust, and having all the combativeness of a combatant, shot this ruffian in the abdomen with an arrow. A young patriot with a black moustache, coming from the museum, laughingly said, "Bravo! you should be nationally rewarded by receiving the right of franchise, for I witnessed the altercation, and the evidence is irrefragable and indisputable that you have removed a nauseous reptile. I now make this inquiry— will not the matrons in this country, and the patrons of our schools, inaugurate some system that will give an impetus to the interesting study of our language? If half the leisure moments were thus spent in lieu of reading some despicable romance, we should be wiser than we are. " TOPICAL ANALYSIS. Definitions, p. 151. Articulation, p. 153. Importance of articulation, p. 153. Difficulties of articulation. • Difficulty of uttering consonant sounds, p. 153. • • Succession of similar sounds, p. 153. • • Influence of accent, p. 154. • Tendency to slide over unaccented vowels, p. 154. Cautions in articulation. L Do not form a measured and mechanical articulation, p. 155. II. Importance of the close of sentences, p. 155. HI. Ascertain defects, p. 155. Special difficulties, p. 155. I. Consonants, p. 155. H. How to roll one's r's, p. 156. M. The Italian A, p. 157. The letter H, p. 157. Nasal tones, p. 158. Legonve's infallible rule, p. 159. Practice in articulation, p. 160. Exercises, p. 160. Pronunciation, p. 162. Standards of pronunciation, p. 162. Dictionary authority, p. 162. The unpardonable error, p. 163. Proper names, p. 165. Exercises, p. 165.